GUEST LAGGED=GUEST + JET LAGGED

Need we say more?

Okay - all you people with belly-button piercings...or for you parents with kids who want them... Nota Bene!!!!

A teenage girl had a miraculous escape when her belly button stud almost pierced through to her spine in a car crash.

Art student Jessica Collins, 19, from Radyr, Cardiff, south Wales, was in a car crash in Munich, Germany, last week.

The 19-year-old's seatbelt was so violently projected into her stomach that it forced her metal navel stud almost through to her spine.

But luck was on her side as a surgeon happened to be in the car behind the one in which she was travelling.

Despite the freak nature of her injuries, he understood the seriousness of the situation and immediately called for an air ambulance.

Meanwhile, an ambulance travelling on the same road arrived on the scene carrying life-saving equipment. She was stabilised before being flown to hospital and operated on within an hour.

Surgeons who fought successfully to save her life later compared her serious internal injuries to a bullet wound.

Jessica's family flew out to Germany last week and her mother Amanda Beadle remains at her daughter's side as she recovers from surgery.

Stepfather Chris Beadle, who is now back in the UK, said: "Fate would have it that there was a paramedic in the car behind and an ambulance already following along the road.

"Even then, had they not been there, I would say that Jess would not be with us now. But it was a very close call. She was being operated on within the hour but it was a three-hour operation.

"The surgeons said that they had never seen anything like it before - they compared her injuries to a gunshot wound.

"The stud had gone through several layers of intestine almost to the spine. When she got out of surgery, she was on life support for 24 hours."

What a great film! I hadn't read the book - so was going in ignorant. There were some fabulous shots in the movie. Sean Penn has done an amazing job at directing this story. The casting choices were excellent: what a cast! Brilliant performances.

I don't want to say anything else, except go and see this film on the big screen.

It's highly unusual...

Rain, rain and more rain in Southern California has sent a mighty torrent of mud and rocks down from on high into the car parks and lower ground apartments at the Oakwood on Barham Boulevard.

As if being engulfed in flames a few months ago wasn't enough, we are now plagued by the power of water from the heavens.

Do we sue the man who sued God earlier this week? Is he the cause of our current plight?

I have photos. Will put them up in a bit.

I went down to rescue my car from the gush of watery mud. I was up to my knees in the cold, somewhat enjoyably gritty stuff. I think it harkened back to childhood, days when I would deliberately allow myself to get all grubby playing with mud and water in the garden.

But this was no time for play. All the residents can do right now as the next Monsoon-like downpour begins the next waterfall cascading over the retaining walls, is watch mesmerized by the sheer force of nature.

Deep ravines have become the channel for the flow, and the fool that parked his car right under the retaining wall is somewhere else, oblivious to the imminent destruction to his vehicle.

Oh - there's a patch of blue in the sky over the next knoll. Hmm... maybe the DELHUGE (deluge + huge) will stop soon.

MIANTICIPATING

'God' Apparently Responds to Lawsuit
By NATE JENKINS (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
September 20, 2007 7:30 PM EDT
LINCOLN, Neb. - A legislator who filed a lawsuit against God has gotten something he might not have expected: a response. One of two court filings from "God" came Wednesday under otherworldly circumstances, according to John Friend, clerk of the Douglas County District Court in Omaha.

"This one miraculously appeared on the counter. It just all of a sudden was here - poof!" Friend said.

State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha sued God last week, seeking a permanent injunction against the Almighty for making terroristic threats, inspiring fear and causing "widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth's inhabitants."


Chambers, a self-proclaimed agnostic who often criticizes Christians, said his filing was triggered by a federal lawsuit he considers frivolous. He said he's trying to makes the point that anybody can sue anybody.

Not so, says "God." His response argues that the defendant is immune from some earthly laws and the court lacks jurisdiction.

It adds that blaming God for human oppression and suffering misses an important point.

"I created man and woman with free will and next to the promise of immortal life, free will is my greatest gift to you," according to the response, as read by Friend.

There was no contact information on the filing, although St. Michael the Archangel is listed as a witness, Friend said.

A second response from "God" disputing Chambers' allegations lists a phone number for a Corpus Christi law office. A message left for that office was not immediately returned Thursday.


Attempts to reach Chambers by phone and at his Capitol office Thursday were unsuccessful.

---

Associated Press Writer Anna Jo Bratton in Omaha contributed to this report.

How about this Bavarian Concept? Marriage should only last 7 years at a time....

BERLIN (Reuters) - Bavaria's most glamorous politician -- a flame-haired motorcyclist who helped bring down state premier Edmund Stoiber -- has shocked the Catholic state in Germany by suggesting marriage should last just 7 years.

IS THE 7-YEAR THRESHOLD A REAL BARRIER TO A FUTURE TOGETHER?

Gabriele Pauli, who poses on her web site in motorcycle leathers, is standing for the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) -- sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) -- in a vote next week.

She told reporters at the launch of her campaign manifesto on Wednesday she wanted marriage to expire after seven years and accused the CSU, which promotes traditional family values, of nurturing ideals of marriage which are wide of the mark.

"The basic approach is wrong ... many marriages last just because people believe they are safe," she told reporters. "My suggestion is that marriages expire after seven years."

DOES ANY UNION THAT EXCEEDS THIS SELL_BY DATE RESULT IN CONTEMPTIMACY (intimacy + contempt), OR LEAD TO SETTLECIDAL (suicidal + settle) THOUGHTS?

After that time, couples should either agree to extend their marriage or it should be automatically dissolved, she said.

IS THIS WHEN THE MARRIAGE BECOMES A MIRIAGE (mirage + marriage)?

Fifty-year-old Pauli, twice divorced, is a maverick intent on shaking up her male-dominated and mainly Catholic party which has dominated Bavarian politics since World War Two.

"This is about bringing ideas into the CSU and starting a discussion," she told German television on Thursday after she had unleashed a wave of criticism from other politicians.

Former foe Stoiber said she did not belong in the CSU and European lawmaker Ingo Freidrich dismissed her views.

"She is diametrically contradicting our Christian, ethical values," Freidrich said.

Peter Ramsauer, head of the CSU in Germany's parliament, compared Pauli's ideas to "the dirt under your fingernails".

Pauli, who attracted attention earlier this year when she posed for a magazine wearing long black latex gloves, was at the centre of a snooping scandal which eventually led to Stoiber, Bavarian premier for 14 years, saying he would stand down early.

OKAY - WE ARE CLEARLY HEARING ABOUT ONE STRANGE BIRD!

She said his office tried to obtain details about lovers and alcohol consumption to use against her.

The CSU will elect Stoiber's successor as party head at a conference next week. He will be replaced as state premier in early October.

Viewed as a party rebel, Pauli stands almost no chance of winning next week's vote. The contest has been fought mainly between Bavarian state economy minister Erwin Huber and German Consumer Minister Horst Seehofer.

The popularity of Seehofer, a 58-year-old married father of three, has suffered from the disclosure that he had been having an affair with a younger woman who recently had his baby.

MIAMENGAGED

So... they have disappeared: the honeymooners. I haven't heard from them since they emailed to say their LOSTAGE had been found and they were reunited at last...

HOLY LAWSUIT!!!!

This has got to be up there with the biggest, craziest waste of court time and public money ever!!!!

Do you ever feel like you live in the LOONIVERSE, where nothing is logical anymore?

You and me both!

READ ON!

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A court in Nebraska is being asked to cast judgement on the ultimate judge -- God.

State lawmaker Ernie Chambers filed a lawsuit Friday against the Almighty -- acknowledging he/she goes by numerous aliases -- for causing "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues" and other alliterative catastrophes.

The suit, Chambers vs God, asks the court for a "permanent injunction ordering defendant (God) to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terrorist threats" which affect innumerable persons, including Chambers's constituents.

It asserts that God is "the admitted perpetrator" of such acts and said that God's omnipresence gives the local Douglas County District Court jurisdiction in the suit, adding that God's omniscience eliminates the need to issue a formal notice of the lawsuit.

He asked the court to award him an unspecified summary judgment against God, or, in the alternative, issue a permanent injunction against God engaging in the damaging acts cited in the filing.

I can't even read this story aloud without guffawing incredulously. I challenge you to try!

Neither God nor his/her spokespersons could be contacted for comment.

BUT GOD HAS BEEN SUED FOR PESTILENCE AND TERROR!

Talk about the one most elusive criminal ever: more elusive than Osama Bin Laden. I suspect Chambers has a one-way cattle-class trip to Hell when he has shuffled off his mortal coil...

Maybe he's hoping it will settle out of court!

He can't possibly be hoping he'll win!

Well - there you go... I hope that has put a smile on your face today.

Oh my face hurts from laughing so much.

MIAGONY

Here's a horror tale... (Not quite as horrific perhaps as the self-mutilating loon who decided to give himself a castration in a packed Italian restaurant).

It's up there with, you're locked in a coffin and about to be buried and you wake up. You're not dead. I think this is the primary reason my Mother wants to be cremated.

This is just as nightmarish.

CARACAS (Reuters) - A Venezuelan man who had been declared dead woke up in the morgue in excruciating pain after medical examiners began their autopsy.

Carlos Camejo, 33, was declared dead after a highway accident and taken to the morgue, where examiners began an autopsy only to realize something was amiss when he started bleeding. They quickly sought to stitch up the incision on his face.

CLUE: when someone is dead, the heart has stopped pumping blood round the body. That means: YOU DON'T BLEED!!!!

"I woke up because the pain was unbearable," Camejo said, according to a report on Friday in leading local newspaper El Universal.

CALL THE DEAD MAN'S WIFE AND BREAK HER HEART FOR NOTHING!!!

His grieving wife turned up at the morgue to identify her husband's body only to find him moved into a corridor -- and alive.

Camejo showed the newspaper his facial scar and a document ordering the autopsy.

Talk about a STUPREME mistake!

MIAPPALLED

No THUGBY (well - maybe some...)

No HUGBY....

Just hard core Rugby! I just witnessed South Africa spanking England in the latest round of the Rugby World Cup. Ay Me! 'Twas Painful... especially when the one shining light of the entire match - Jason Robinson pulled a hamstring... which could mark the end of his career.

Through tearful eyes I winced as he was stretchered off the field.

Still, our one consolation as we cease to sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" is that the French LOST big time to Argentina: and for that the Stade Francais resounded with a pulsating eerie silence.

The memory of the humiliated French team was a miniscule consolation to the few Brits who like me, in the final moments of the match watched at a South African pub in the Valley. We were outnumbered and out-shouted by those green and gold shirt-wearers.

Still - for now, England is still the World Cup holder.

"Land of Hope and Glory...."

Old hope, waning glory, maybe!

MIAPOPLECTIC!